Sefko: With Nowitzki, Mavs hope to get up to speed quickly

5/26

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports/Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Dec 23, 2012; San Antonio, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle (center) talks with his players during the second half against the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center. The Spurs won 129-91. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

OKLAHOMA CITY — If NBA players were cars, Dirk
Nowitzki would be the Mercedes Benz elite luxury model.

But as far as Rick Carlisle is concerned, Nowitzki’s more like a Toyota Camry
— a comfort car built for reliability and durability.

That’s why Nowitzki’s return from knee surgery just before Christmas was such
good timing. He’s brought a twinkle to everybody’s eye just by being around. His
arrival also coincided with the exit of another important, dependable vehicle —
Derek Fisher.

“We’re definitely all thrilled to see him and have him be available,”
Carlisle said Wednesday. “The timing is good because Fisher was really an
important guy for us for the three weeks he was here.

“I have a diesel vehicle and I filled it up with diesel the day [Fisher]
arrived and the day [Fisher] left I had to go back to the gas station. He lasted
one tank of fuel in my vehicle. It was metaphorically prophetic that as that
needle was going down in my gas gauge, so was the time that he was going to be
here.

“So now, Dirk coming back, it helps with that loss and Dirk’s the kind of guy
that’s going to make any teammate better. It’s exciting, but we got to
understand that this is the beginning of the process.”

In other words, the Mavericks can’t expect one shiny new car in the garage to
make all the difference if there’s a bunch of junkers next to him. This is not
going to be a quick fix.

Nowitzki will play in his second game Thursday night against the Oklahoma
City Thunder. He will once again come off the bench, Carlisle said. And he will
be on a minutes restriction.

But the news is largely good. Carlisle said the plan going into back-to-back
games against the Thunder and Denver Nuggets is for Nowitzki to play in both
games.

“Look, if he comes off the bench, he may be in [the game] in the first
minute,” Carlisle said. “I’m just telling you he’s coming off the bench, and
we’ll see where it goes.

“If there’s a limited number of minutes we can play him to burn those up at
the very beginning when there’s no timeouts the first six minutes is tough on
him and it doesn’t make sense for us. So our starters got to hold the fort.”

Nowitzki said after his debut that he isn’t expecting miracles. He knows he’s
not going to be able to step on the court and play 40 minutes, although that’s
what his buddy Steve Nash did after nearly two months off.

Nowitzki is going to be eased into it. But don’t be misled, the process of
getting him used to all these new teammates will be expedited as much as
possible.

“As a team, we’ve got a long way to go,” Nowitzki said. “We’re not very good
defensively right now. I think that’s obvious. Offensively, our decision-making
is horrible. So we’ve got to work on a lot of areas.”

One certainty is that, with Nowitzki, opponents have a focal point
defensively that they have to account for on every possession that Nowitzki is
on the court. That will open things up for other players.

The front line of Chris Kaman, Nowitzki and Shawn Marion will get a chance to
be on the court together more and more as the games come quickly.

“We have Dirk healthy, which is a major plus,” Carlisle said. “We got to get
him integrated with the other guys. The hope is that we can get him back up to
speed to where he can play his normal minutes sooner than later.”

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